Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn vol. 19

Phobos was saved in the previous volume.  Freed of Labrys’ reprogramming by way of the Bydo virus, she’s herself again as well as Nene’s friend.  Now that she’s back, the first thing on the agenda is getting Clarion back to her old self.  Which is going to be hard because she’s whatever the AI equivalent of feral-as-all-get-out is.  But Phobos may be able to pull it off with a combination of her combat skills, Niko’s programming know-how, and Nene’s heart (yes, really).  Which is a good thing because they’ll likely be needed back in the real world as Aegis is spearheading Poseidon’s assault on Cenacle island and, specifically, Takumi’s home stronghold and the information held within it.

While vol. 18 aims to maintain the momentum coming off of vol. 17 (after a one-off to catch us up with Robert and his ninja transformation), it can’t quite manage that.  Though the stuff involving the effort to revert Clarion to normal is well-handled, the storytelling falters when we get back to the real world.  This is because the conflict feels one-sided as it comes off like a delaying action before Poseidon gets what they want and our protagonists (hopefully) bring the fight to them in the next arc.

Takumi and her “Geru-komas” are shown to be putting up a valiant fight, except that it feels like the illusion of struggle here.  Whether it’s the implacable menace shown by Aegis, or more likely the annoyingly smug confidence exuded by Labrys whenever we see her face, I get the impression that the battle is already lost and we’re just marking time here.  So let’s hope that this is all brought to a close with vol. 19 and we can get on to (what will likely be) the series’ climactic arc.